This telescope features in our lists of the best telescopes for beginners, the best telescopes for astrophotography, best telescopes for kids and the best budget telescopes Celestron Inspire 100AZ refractor. Credit: BBC Sky at Night Magazine Celestron Inspire 100AZ Focus and colour

The 60mm aperture is more than enough power for a detailed look at the Moon, and Jupiter and you'll see the rings of Saturn, but it isn't intended for viewing planets in any great detail.A Refracting telescope uses a central Lens that forms the image for you to see (the lens is the objective in a refactor compared to a mirror in a reflector). This is an all-around solid telescope that has few to no issues at all. Some people have complained about the tripod being loose, but that is a complaint every factory grade tripod gets at some point. The price is a bit higher than I would normally like to see for a kit like this but it is not priced unfairly. With your fingernail on either side of the battery, pry the battery up and out of the battery compartment.

refractor with fully-coated optics and enough light gathering ability to view all the best celestial objects. Special edition Popular Science branding makes your optical tube stand out.The extra magnification of your eyepiece will help you to take great photos of whatever it is you are observing, whether that is the the Moon and the Planets or anything on the ground if you are using it for terrestrial purposes (e.g. Wildlife). To fit the adapter, all you need to do is fit it on top of one of the eyepieces (instructions on how to do this are included in the box) and attaching the bungee cords. Your smartphone will then be held firmly in position.

It’s then a simple matter of pointing the Inspire 100AZ at a Solar System object (including the Sun if a suitable front-mounted solar filter is used), adjusting the focus and capturing a short video for processing in AutoStakkert! or RegiStax. Celestron Inspire 100AZ refractor. Credit: BBC Sky at Night Magazine Celestron Inspire 100AZ best features StarPointer Pro Red Dot Finder A 40mm Plossl and 32mm Plossl provide the same field of view due to the limitations of the 1.25” barrel size, and the higher magnification of the 32mm means a bit more contrast under light-polluted skies with the Inspire 100AZ due to the smaller exit pupil. Almost any 32mm will do, and most of the cheaper ones are very similar, but we particularly like the 32mm Plossl from SVBONY– which is literally the same as the one Celestron sells at a significantly marked-up price. Never look directly at the Sun with the naked eye or with an optic (unless you have the proper solar filter). Permanent and irreversible eye damage may result. The telescope is simple to set up, and you can start observing right away. You can put together the telescope and its accessories in a matter of minutes, even if it's your first time. The telescope's height can be adjusted, and its tripod legs allow you to set it down on elevated surfaces like a picnic table. The complete telescope equipment is ideal for carrying along on your travels in life or for last-minute viewing sessions. Despite that, it will not get as clear and sharp views of deep sky objects as a dedicated reflector geared for deep space viewing. It will also lag behind more focused refractors that excel at getting views of high contrast things like the rings of Saturn. Again, it can do everything well but nothing spectacularly.We also measure the Power with our systems which is essentially the error from the reference sphere to the test optic. The reference sphere we use on our system is a very high quality sphere so the closer to zero the Power, the less error between the 2 elements thus ensuring a higher quality optical surface. The Moon may be very bright in the night sky. The Moon’s big, bright disc can blind StarSense Explorer so that it cannot locate objects near the Moon. To see if this is the problem, try selecting another object to view in a different part of the night sky. Also, keep in mind that any deep-sky objects will appear washed out when the Moon is bright in the night sky. The best nights to observe are when the Moon is in or near the New Moon phase. Includes 1 free year of the “SLOOH Astronomer” subscription. Remotely reserve, control, and image through professional grade telescopes, access to livestream SLOOH shows, and many other features Lastly, and most controversially, is the lens cap/smartphone adapter. Celestron’s design here is straight up bizarre. By removing a small plug from the cap and removing the eyecup from the eyepiece you want to use, then screwing the whole thing together with a small plastic screw, you can slide your smartphone between the elastic straps on the lens cap and use it as a crude “digiscoping” adapter for your smartphone. However, this has a few caveats. For one, it won’t fit any aftermarket eyepieces that don’t have a flush barrel and removable eyecup. Second, it covers part of your phone’s screen, which can make it hard to set the focus and other features of your phone camera. Last but not least, you are relying on some cheap elastic straps and a single nylon thumb screw to keep your phone safe. So keep that in mind. This is one of the best entry-level telescopes on the market. If I was new to astronomy, this would be one of those telescopes that I would most likely get. With its relative power, ease of use, portability, sleek design and the range of accessories make this a brilliant first telescope. Pricing and Where to Buy

There’s also a small red flashlight included with the Inspire telescopes, which mounts to the centre of the hub of the tripod below the mount head and can be detached from the mount with the turn of a knob. It’s a little too bright to use as a plain flashlight at night, but the diffuser built into the tripod makes it into a really great tray light to softly illuminate your accessories without completely ruining your night vision. The Smartphone Adapter is another highly impressive feature of the 100az. It enables you to connect your smartphone to your telescope (as long as it is wielding a an eyepiece with an outside diameter of 45mm or smaller – like those included). Place the new CR-2032 battery, positive (+) side up, under the two copper battery clips at the front of the battery compartment.Turn on “Save Images & Logs” from the Menu as described above. After you use StarSense Explorer at night, there will be images and log files stored on your phone. Accessing them requires connecting your iPhone to a computer that has iTunes. Follow these steps to retrieve the files: